Best PDF editors 2023: Our top picks

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC remains the industry standard for good reason. Its rich combination of creation, editing, reviewing, and security features are mimicked by the best alternative options, but we feel Acrobat still does it best. Its recent interface redesign makes it much easier to navigate through its robust toolset than the nested menus of yore, and its cloud subscription option puts its advanced features within reach of more individuals and small businesses. (See how it compares to the Adobe Acrobat Standard DC.)

Though many of its features are available in other, cheaper PDF editors, Acrobat is still the editor against which all others are judged.

Nitro PDF Pro hits all the right notes for a premium PDF editor that can take on the formidable Adobe Acrobat. It’s packed with features that are sure to please power users—all the requisite content editing tools; review and markup features; form fill and signing support; and robust security options for sensitive documents, such as permissions, password protection, and data redaction. It supports over 300 file formats, and adding hyperlinks, images, and files to a PDF is trouble-free.

Indeed, ease-of-use is one of Nitro PDF Pro’s great strengths. A Microsoft Office-style ribbon interface groups tasks in a familiar and intuitive interface, which makes for a seamless integration with your workflow. Yes, it’s priced on the higher side for a PDF editor, but with all it has going for it, Nitro PDF Pro more than earns its keep. If you’re looking for an Acrobat replacement, you won’t find many better.

Swifdoo might not have the name recognition of some of the other editors on this list, but it’s more than capable of holding its own in the crowded PDF editor market. Swifdoo provides all of the essential tools for managing PDF files without any of the fancy or hard-to-understand features. It allows users to jump right in to their toolset and get straight to editing with only what they need.

While Swifdoo’s features are great, they are also pretty standard fare among PDF editors. What makes Swifdoo stand out is its affordable price—it’s a great value for those who regularly edit PDFs and don’t want to pay out the nose. Swifdoo also offers a generous trial period so users can take it for a spin to see if it meets their needs before they commit to paying any money.

PDF Candy is the rare free PDF editor that offers a lot of the features you’d typically have to pay for. We’re talking scanning, multiple file-conversion options, and OCR functionality. All of this combines to make PDF Candy stand out among the multitude of lesser free PDF editors. It does have a bit of a wonky interface, but once you get the hang of it you’re off and running.

Unfortunately, while the free version has access to the expansive toolset of the paid version, you’re limited to one PDF task per hour. If you want unfettered access, you need to shell out $6 per month, or $48 per year.

PDF Expert is an excellent editor that fits seamlessly into the Apple ecosystem, making it our pick for Macs, iPads, and iPhone users.

While macOS does include a PDF editor in its Preview app, iOS devices don’t have a native PDF editor and PDF Expert fills that gap nicely. It has a clean and intuitive interface and offers a plethora of easy-to-use editing options such as page management, converting scanned files into editable documents, and conversion to other file formats, among other things. The pricing plan is also considerably cheaper than most of the other top picks, meaning this is a no-brainer for Apple users.

Mac users needn’t look beyond the macOS for their PDF editing needs, since there is a full set of PDF markup tools already available at their disposal in Apple Preview. It has the chops to handle most personal and business PDF editing needs, including encryption, password protection, and permissions for files.

Apple Preview’s PDF features and capabilities are impressive and should be all you need for most common editing tasks. The drawback, of course, is that only Mac users can take advantage of them.

pdfFiller is a browser-based PDF editor that allows you do to just about everything PDF-related—editing, securing, sharing, creating, and storing PDF files—all from its intuitive and simple web interface. Its design is similar to a desktop app, with the toolbar across the top, and document thumbnails along the side, so it’s very easy to select the page you want to work on and perform the desired function, be it adding, deleting, or copying/pasting text; changing font style, size, and color; and so on. A standard set of markup tools is also available. It has a surprisingly deep set of features for both personal and business use. For instance the Premium plan offers an impressive legal document library, as well as SignNow support.

While incredibly versatile, not all of pdfFiller’s advanced features will suit everyone. Fortunately, there are three subscription tiers, which gives users a way to meet their editing needs without paying extra for unnecessary features: Basic for $8/mo; Plus for $12/mo; Premium for $15/mo with an annual commitment. Month-to-month options are also available, but at a higher cost, of course.